Jin Tian
Jin Tian is a hyperactive space dragon. He arrived in-game on April 6th, 2011 and currently lives in Kurzweil, though he moves throughout the Garden Zones. age: several million, but he looks about 17 origins: Original app link: Here ' '''hmd: Here ' '''played by: Pen contact: 'AIM: pendragon237 ; plurk: talkingsoup Setting Oh boy here we go. ''World Info Jin is currently on a very normal version of Earth. The only unusual thing about his universe is that all of the stars are in fact nests for dragons. All of the dragons in his reality live inside stars, and different breeds of dragons live in different kinds of stars. These dragons have evolved to survive the extreme heat and radiation of the various stars. They all look generally the same and have the same biology, but their coloring and internal temperatures differ depending on the kind of star. Jin and what remains of his people come from a yellow star similar to our sun. Dragon biology is complex and is suited for a star’s environment. Their flesh resembles scales and feathers and is quite malleable but also very tough, difficult to puncture and able to withstand very, very high temperatures. Their blood is made almost entirely of plasma, and their bones are made from an extremely high-density fused metal not found on Earth. Their brains and hearts are very large, while their lungs are small as they don't need to "breathe" very often. They receive almost all of their energy directly from the sun’s light and radiation. The rest they receive by practicing their natural role as star custodians--that is, to eat rogue elements that enter the star. Stars naturally fuse hydrogen into helium through the majority of their lives; after that they begin fusing heavier elements like manganese, nickel and iron. Trace amounts of these elements are found in the stars throughout their lives, but even in small amounts the heavier elements can hurry a star toward its dying phases--sort of like blood clots. The dragons' job is therefore to actually eat or otherwise utilize the trace metals in order to keep the star from starting metal fusion until the appropriate time. Their organs therefore consist of a circulatory system, a simplistic digestive system, a neurological system, a lymphatic system, a system to synthesize the sun’s energy, and a system which can alter the internal temperature at different points in the body. Dragons can therefore increase or decrease their temperature at will; their temperature system is also what allows them to breathe fire (though technically it’s low-temp plasma). Their typical core temperature while inside a sun is approximately that of the sun itself, perhaps a few degrees lower. They are forced to alter their body temperatures when traveling between the various layers of the sun, or out into space. All dragons can survive to about the edge of the outer core, and similarly they can easily survive in the chromosphere and in certain parts of the corona. However, approaching the core or passing through a particularly hot part of the corona or a flare zone will easily kill a dragon. On most stars, dragons build metal portals that pass through the corona so they can leave the star's atmosphere without risking getting caught in a deadly flare. Alternately, they can harness the power of the flares themselves and utilize this when they need to travel great distances, by essentially letting flares or electromagnetic bursts shoot them out into space. Dragons communicate through a very complex psychic link which transmits thoughts, feelings, images and colors which combine to make a coherent language. This language is virtually untranslateable to any spoken language, and dragons essentially cannot communicate with others using this language except on a basic level, as the brains of other species aren’t wired to interpret the messages. For long distances, however, they communicate with loud, variable frequency roars. Their eyes also have multiple lenses that they can switch between. Different lenses allow them to see different kinds of light—they can therefore see all light on the spectrum. Dragons are very intelligent and are essentially pacifists. They consider themselves to be caretakers of planets with life, and have certain rules about interacting with life-bearing planets and the species on them. Since their bodies are malleable, they are able to lower their temperatures and transform into other creatures. When they choose to go to a particular planet, their code of conduct states that they must take the form of one of the species there initially, and that they aren’t to interfere in the processes of life and evolution. Some of them choose to remain on planets long-term, and either keep their chosen form or return to dragon form, though they keep their temperatures significantly reduced. They’re generally a happy people and don’t really interfere in the lives of others, just sort of going about their business. Once every few millennia or so, dragons send representatives from each star to a Dragon Moot at a predetermined location in the galaxy to discuss how stars and planets are progressing and cite any threats. The only real technology that dragons possess is a system of wormholes throughout the galaxy, known collectively as Tunnels, which permit speedy transit between star systems. These Tunnels can only be accessed by two species, of which dragons are one, as they are one of two in the galaxy with the appropriate psychic skills necessary to open, direct, and close the Tunnels. This lack of technology has been an issue of late, as the star-eaters have come with great spaceships and weaponry the dragons had never seen. Many of the younger dragons have therefore been learning how to build various electronics and weapons of their own with their limited supply of metal. Dragons live out their lives inside stars, and they age with the stars. When the star undergoes its natural death, dragons typically die with the star. If the star dies or is destroyed prematurely, the dragon clan living within the star is forced to seek out an uninhabited star or create a new one. Star creation takes a long time and requires dragon blood, so a good deal of the clan will die before the star is completed. Most naturally-occurring stars will be born with dragon eggs already inside them; stars created by dragons won’t have this unless the dragons actually lay some. In the past million years, dragons have been dealing with an intruder into the galaxy. The star-eaters are a race of beings that have come from beyond the edges of the galaxy and have for the past million years started consuming stars. The truth is that the star-eaters are actually dragons, or anti-dragons. They share a common ancestor with dragons and they look quite similar, but they survive by literally eating stars. Whereas dragons are beings of fire, gas and metal, star-eaters are beings of light, dust and shadow. They live on solid planets, and therefore have been able to create extremely advanced weapons and spaceships that have allowed them to cross the galactic boundary. Since their arrival, they have been eating stars and using them for their ships’ fuel, and have been killing dragons as they go. They eat the first few layers of the star, which causes the star to become unstable. If the star then doesn’t go into supernova on its own, the star-eaters help it along by dropping antimatter bombs into the star. The resulting supernova is capable of powering the star-eater ships for thousands of years. The war between the dragons and the star-eaters is ongoing, and there have been terrible losses on both sides. In the past several thousand years, the star-eaters have been taking an interest in the life-bearing planets that the dragons protect. While dragons love life-bearing planets, star-eaters seem to have a deeply ingrained hatred of them. They have been attempting to wipe out any life-bearing planets they come into contact with, with minimal success—the dragons do everything in their power to thwart them. In recent centuries, the star-eaters have begun to infiltrate some life-bearing planets, either disguising themselves as one of the species or sending in robots and androids. They have a veritable army of robots that often do most of the fighting for them, while androids are mostly used for infiltration. Most recently, the star-eaters have set their sights on Earth. History Jin was born into a normal, average-sized yellow star somewhere in the Lupus constellation. He lived the first few million years of his life as a normal dragon living inside the star, though he liked to travel more than the average dragon. He would often travel between star systems and particularly liked to find systems with life-bearing planets. Most dragons are content to take care of such planets, but Jin in particular liked to watch the goings on of life on those planets and learn from it. The ideas he got from the different species he watched made him start thinking about things beyond the scope of a dragon’s life. About a million years ago, the star-eaters began appearing in the galaxy. At first the dragons would only receive occasional reports about stars that had been destroyed, but as time went by, more and more stars began disappearing. Whole populations of dragons were being killed off. The dragons came to understand that they were facing a great enemy, though their knowledge of that enemy remained very limited. The star-eaters were similar to dragons, but they survived by absorbing the energy of stars directly, and that same energy powered their massive starships. Dragons tried to reason with the star-eaters, but they seemed to have no real interest in peace with them. Then about a thousand years ago, a fleet of star-eater ships began to head for Jin’s home star. His clan prepared themselves and were able to fight back when the star-eaters arrived. Jin saw all of the death and destruction that was happening and realized that the star itself wasn’t important—that life was important. He had watched how species on life-bearing planets always seemed to travel between one place and another, and how they adapted to new places. He decided that his clan should do the same. In secret, he went to the flagship and asked to negotiate with the fleet’s commander, Nifraim. He told Nifraim that he would be willing to show him how to infiltrate the star itself, so long as Jin and his people had time to escape. Nifraim seemed to be a reasonable sort and agreed to the arrangement. Jin led him through a gap in the dragons’ defenses and into the star. As soon as Nifraim and his forces were inside the star, Nifraim betrayed Jin and captured him. Jin was locked away on one of the ships and his limbs were shackled with a seemingly unbreakable metal. He was also given a window to watch what happened. Nifraim’s forces moved quickly. When the dragons realized what Jin had done, many of them retreated into the sun to try and stop the star-eaters, but it was too late. The star-eaters devoured the top layers of the star, shrinking it so quickly that the star became unstable. Nifraim then dropped an antimatter warhead into the star’s core. The supernova that resulted killed almost all of the dragons of Jin’s clan, including his entire family. Jin was forced to watch his home and his clan be destroyed. Nifraim kept Jin on the ship because, in his words, he found traitors interesting. Jin suffered psychological and physical torture at Nifraim’s hands for many years. This combined with an overwhelming guilt caused Jin to lose many of his memories. Then one day a dragon, a survivor from Jin’s clan, snuck aboard Nifraim’s ship and appeared before Jin. Jin could barely remember what had happened, but the dragon told him that she had come at the request of Jin’s mother, before she had died in the supernova. The dragon had stolen an antimatter weapon from the star-eater ship and managed to free three of the shackles binding Jin before Nifraim appeared. She only had enough time to shoot at the fourth and final chain, breaking the chain but not the shackle around Jin’s wrist. Nifraim killed her, and in the commotion Jin managed to escape. He opened a Tunnel haphazardly, not knowing where he was going, and came out just above Earth’s atmosphere. Time had bent around him, and he had passed several centuries into the future It was the year 1406 on Earth. Four hundred years ago, people all over the world had witnessed an extremely bright supernova in the sky. Then in 1406, what seemed to be a meteor crashed down in China, setting fire to the nearby village. The meteor burned in its crater for four days before the people were able to approach it. There, in the crater, they found Jin. Jin had lost almost all of his memories, but he remembered that he was supposed to take on the form of one of the species on a life-bearing planet. He analyzed the humans who were staring at him in awe, and transformed into what was essentially an amalgamation of all of those people, many of whom were children and young men. His hair remained bright orange, however. The people believed that Jin was a real Chinese dragon and treated him with respect. Jin was badly wounded, so the villagers collectively took care of him. They gave him the name Jin Tian, due to his coloring and the fact that he’d fallen from the sky. One young man agreed to take him in and look after him, since Jin didn’t know anything about being human and couldn’t even speak their language. The man’s name was Shi, and he took a liking to Jin immediately. Shi was an inventor, and though his inventions usually failed, he was known for his creativity. He had recently begun to experiment with clocks and other time-keeping devices. Over the next several years, Shi and Jin became inseparable. Shi taught Jin everything he could, and Jin quickly learned the language and the customs. He also slowly began to regain his memories. Shi was beginning to age and Jin had regained a lot of his memories when one day several dragons appeared on Earth. All of them were from Earth’s sun, Sol, and had come to put Jin on trial for treason and mass murder. Jin could barely remember what he had done, but he hadn’t forgotten the guilt. The dragons of Sol explained that some of the dragons from Jin’s home star had survived. They also explained that since Supernova 1006, as it was known on Earth, the dragons had taken to creating and using technology of their own. They had discovered a way to create a very hard, dense metal, almost as dense as dragon bones; this metal was almost indestructible, and was the same type of metal used by the star-eaters. The only thing that could break it, in fact, was dragon bones—dragon metal. The dragons also revealed that star-eaters had begun to come to Earth and were sending their androids down to infiltrate the planet. They hadn’t yet launched an attack on Sol itself, but the dragons were very worried. Nifraim, now an admiral, seemed to also be looking for Jin. Jin was more worried for Earth’s safety than for his own. The Sol dragons were going to take Jin to be tried and probably executed, but Shi, who had heard the whole story, asked them to allow for an alternative. He told the dragons that since Jin knew the inner-workings of the star-eaters, and since he also now had extensive knowledge of Earth, it would be better for him to be a spy than to be taken away and killed. The dragons pointed out that Jin would need to then kill whatever star-eaters or star-eater robots he came into contact with. But in the years since meeting Jin, Shi had become quite the inventor and had become famous in the region for his clocks. He offered to build a weapon that could defeat the star-eaters weapons, so long as the Sol dragons provided some of their metal. The Sol dragons finally agreed. They told Jin that he must spend the remainder of his life on Earth, until every last star-eater on Earth had been killed. If he tried to leave the planet, the dragons would kill him. They provided Shi with the materials he needed and departed to keep watch over Jin and the planet from afar. Over the next few decades, the relationship between Jin and Shi was rather strained, as both of them had become part of something very large. Part of Shi might have resented Jin for dragging him into this, as well as for betraying his people. He spent almost all of his time figuring out how to create the weapon, and decided to base the design on what he had learned about star-eaters, whose weapons were robotic and had transformative properties. At the end of his life, Shi finally presented Jin with the completed weapon. The weapon came in two parts in the form of two clockwork cats, built the metal the dragons had provided and installed with a basic AI. The two cats when joined together transformed into a scythe that could change its form at will and easily dispatch any star-eater robot. The cats were named Tick and Tock, and Jin was given a clock key that would wind them up. Shortly after he gave them to Jin, Shi died, though he made Jin promise to fight the star-eaters for as long as he could. Jin wandered all over the world after that. He traveled south first through India, the Middle East, and Africa, learning more about humans and their planet and destroying star-eater machines whenever he encountered them. He also began adjusting his appearance slightly whenever he encountered a new race of people. He went back through Southeast Asia to Japan, and then north across Russia and into Europe. It was the early 1500’s in France when Nifraim caught up with him again. Nifraim had opened a proper Tunnel shortly after Jin had disappeared, and so arrived four hundred years before Jin in Europe. He too had traveled far, and everywhere he went he left legends and influence. In the Central and South Americas he was known as Quetzacoatl; in Scandinavia he was known as Nidhogg; in China and Japan he was Seiryu; and in the Middle East he was worshipped as an incarnation of Abzu. Even when he seemed to impart good teachings or protection to the people who worshiped him, he at the same time helped brought about their destruction. He was now back in Europe and was secretly conducting some of the major explorations that took place in the 1500’s. Nifraim seemed to have a power over Jin that no one else had, and could push his buttons as no one else could. Jin had never been able to get the one shackle off of his wrist, not even when it was hit with star-eater weapons. Nifraim explained that for the past several thousand years, he had been specifically targeting stars with lots of dragons in order to harvest their bones and turn their bones into weapons—and shackles. Jin was infuriated. He tried to fight him and lost, and was temporarily recaptured by Nifraim before escaping again. For the next five hundred years, Nifraim went back and forth between Earth and his fleet of ships, helping to direct attacks elsewhere while simultaneously instigating internal strive all across Earth. Jin ran into him several more times during that five hundred years, sometimes challenging him to a fight and other times simply fleeing. The last time he saw Nifraim was in the early 1900’s in America, when Nifraim was aiding in the capitalist movement against unionization and worker’s rights. Jin has spent the last hundred years in America, going wherever he hears about star-eaters and their machines. Most recently, he has come to a small city called Nova City in Connecticut. Due to his young appearance, these days he mostly poses as a student of some such, since he is too lazy to adjust his appearance to that of an older person. He is now “attending” Nova City High due to strange reports about some of the students there, and this is where he meets Mila. When Mila gets involved in a fight between Jin and a star-eater, during which her best friend is killed, she becomes the first person in several years to find out what Jin is, and she ends up attaching herself to him. Later the two of them meet up with a star-eater android who is a model of a scrapped line, due to a faulty coding in his AI that causes this model to ask questions. The android—a Sun Hound model, capable of transforming from dog to human and back—was hiding out on Earth to escape the star-eaters, who would scrap him if they found him. The android, whose name is Sirius, decides to help Jin and Mila. Mila and Sirius remained in Nova City, helping Jin however they could. Jin occasionally left the city for other countries in order to attend to issues that the Sol dragons needed doing. However, the increasing machine activity in Nova City meant that Jin was spending the majority of his time there, weeding out various individuals or cells of machines. One time several weeks later, Mila came with Jin to fight directly against a particularly hostile machine, and during the fight, revealed a strange skill that she and Jin had until then not known--she had the ability to turn her skin into some kind of dark metal. The more she explored this ability, the more she learned about it, until she could also produce shields and turn her limbs into weapons. Jin was extremely worried by this, as he suspected that she might be some kind of alien or even a machine herself. The more they learned, the more it became clear that Mila was not a machine, at the very least. In the meantime, something else troubling was occurring. A lone dragon, a survivor from Jin's star, had come to Earth looking for him--to kill him. This dragon stalked Jin wherever he went, trying each time to kill him and failing each time. No matter how much Jin tried to reason with him or find out anything about him, the dragon kept coming. Jin has essentially learned to live with his assassin, always forced to keep an eye out for him. Things escalated in Nova City and the trio began to get into fights almost once a day. Finally the source of it all was revealed--Nifraim was in the city, posing as a human and running for mayor. Jin raced to confront him but was beaten without learning anything about what Nifraim's plan for the city might be. Once he'd recovered from the fight he reported his findings to the Sol dragons. Things have been quiet the past few days, though Jin can tell that Mila is about ready to ask him about the truth--and he doesn't think he's ready to tell her. Personality Jin is an extremely happy, cheerful, lively person about ninety percent of the time. He encompasses every meaning of the word “sunny.” He loves life and he loves the planet and everything on it. In particular he loves the diversity of all things, since there isn’t as much diversity among dragons. He doesn’t care what people think in terms of how crazy he sometimes acts, because he wants more than anything to enjoy his life. He has a habit of jumping off of high buildings. Underneath all the cheerfulness, however, is a hell of a lot of guilt. Even though his intentions were good, he still sold out his home star, and he holds himself responsible for its destruction and the death of most of his clan. Internally he is almost constantly reminding himself of the promise he made to the Sol dragons, to his mentor, Shi, and to himself—to defeat every star-eater and star-eater machine on Earth. He therefore puts a lot of responsibility on his own shoulders, and he blames himself whenever the star-eaters manage to hurt or kill something or someone. For the most part, however, he knows that what’s done is done, and that since he can’t change the past, he might as well try to change the future. He also suffers from extreme homesickness. The Sol dragons have forbidden him from leaving Earth, which means that he can’t even visit neighboring stars. His home star is completely gone, as is his family, and what remains of his clan now hates him. In the current times, he can’t even really transform into a dragon, since if he is spotted the human governments might take an interest in him. He has essentially been cut off from almost everything that makes a dragon a dragon. All he has left is his devotion to taking care of the planet. What this means is that he overburdens himself with taking care of the planet and its creatures. He often goes out of his way to protect people, plants and animals, and has been known to take bullets for strangers and such. This often leads to him being badly hurt. Jin also is a bit of a crybaby. He never cries for himself, but he’ll cry for species going extinct, for a stranger being murdered in the city, for people dying in wars, and anything else he thinks of as horrible or sad. He also cries for happy or beautiful things sometimes. Where there’s light, there’s always darkness, and like anyone, Jin also has a dark side. His hatred of the star-eaters runs deep, and he can turn outright vicious if he finds star-eaters or their machines threatening someone or something he cares about. During fights he is usually very gung-ho and cheerful about it, but if the star-eater he is fighting has done something unforgivable, he turns cold, blank and merciless. This typically leads to a guilt trip afterward, especially if other people have seen him. He never wants people to see him acting like the star-eaters he hates. His dark side also has other aspects to it, mostly concerning his relationship with Nifraim. He hates Nifraim more than anything in the world, and at the same time Nifraim is the only one who can really get under his skin. He has been physically and psychologically tortured by Nifraim in the past, and Nifraim has developed something of an obsession with causing the utmost suffering to Jin. When Nifraim is around, Jin becomes mentally unstable, prone to break downs, panic attacks and violent outbursts. As much as he hates Nifraim, he is also terrified of him. Even the mere thought of him can change his mood from good to bad. For the most part, though, Jin is a very happy and hyperactive guy. He’s friendly and extremely compassionate and generous, and in many cases is just completely selfless. At the same time, he loves life and shows it in everything he does. He also rather likes being human, mostly because he gets to eat and wear clothes. He loves food, particularly fish, vegetables, fruits and sweets. He also has a thing for mismatched clothes and scarves. He hates being indoors and tends to run around outside as often as he can. He also hates, and in fact fears, the dark, wet and cold. He needs sunlight and warmth to survive, even in human form, so spending time in the dark, water or cold saps his energy very quickly, leaving him lethargic and sickly. At the same time, he would likely be running around quite happily in 100 degree weather. Finally, Jin has a rather complex relationship with other dragons. When he is around them, he is constantly aware that he is being judged. Almost all dragons these days either disdain or outright hate him. He tends to become very quiet and act very subservient when they’re around. He is well aware that he deserves everything they can level at him. If they do end up liking him, however, he fawns over them like a puppy. He desperately wants the approval of the dragons, which is part of the reason he wants to rid the planet of star-eaters. Much as he loves Earth, he does want to one day return to the stars. Abilities & Weaknesses Just in general, Jin is sort of like a superhuman. He can hold his breath for longer, jump higher, run faster, heal faster, and is also stronger than the average human. He doesn’t need to sleep or eat as much, though he has taken a serious liking to food. He can also fly by letting out his wings and altering his internal biology slightly. He can transform with ease between dragon and human, and the transformation to human is virtually a total transformation on the genetic level. No dragon is perfect at this transformation, however—if he loses focus, or is injured or something, he might lose grip on the transformation and turn back into a dragon, or sprout an extra kidney or arm etc. He could technically transform into anything else on Earth, but he doesn’t—mastering a transformation takes many, many years and is often quite difficult. Like any dragon, he can also adjust his internal temperature at will and can switch between different ocular lenses which allow him to see different kinds of light. In human form he typically keeps his eyes at the human level, since changing lenses in human form requires him to rewire his brain, which takes time. If his internal temperature goes too high, he automatically returns to dragon form in order to keep from frying his human brain. In dragon form, however, he can produce and withstand sun-level temperatures. He is also incapable of breaking bones due to the fact that his bones, and all dragon bones are the hardest metal in the entire galaxy. They can bend and limbs can be dislocated, but the actual bones can't break. In dragon form he doesn't need to breathe, and he can survive and even fly through the vacuum of space for extended periods by utilizing various methods of propulsion and solar winds. Jin’s main talent is that he can wield what he calls the Clockwork Scythe, which is a rather complex weapon with transformative properties. The scythe is actually made up of two clockwork cats called Tick and Tock—Tick is the handle while Tock is the blade. The cats are wound up by a key and can then join together and transform into a scythe; the scythe itself then has transformative properties. The scythe is made up of the second-hardest metal in Jin’s galaxy after dragon bones, which means it can break or pierce just about anything. Tick and Tock also won’t transform for anyone else, so Jin is the only one who can use them. Non-supernatural abilities include a very healthy knowledge of electronics, technology and most science. He can also speak about fifty Earth languages plus a handful of dialects. Also his blood is on fire. This isn't really an ability as it's a natural part of his physiology. After leaving his body when he's been wounded or something, the human blood reverts to its natural state, which is basically just super-hot plasma. Once this happens it can essentially set fires and melt through a lot of things. Older dragons can control this, but Jin has no control over it. Bleeding is always a danger for him and he has accidentally set a few fires in his time this way. As a dragon he is extremely weak to cold and water. He can't swim, and being submerged in water for extended periods will kill him, probably with dire consequences for the surrounding ecosystem as he'd boil the water around him before dying. Cold and the dark are also particularly deadly. He can't live for long without direct exposure to the sun. Being cold can lead to cold sicknesses, which manifests a bit like the flu and results in him losing control over his transformation abilities. Cold sickness can kill a dragon if it continues for too long, and this is how many dragons die when they are trapped in empty space for too long. He has a lot of mental and psychological weaknesses as well. He is guilt-ridden, puts too much pressure on himself and is prone to a heroic BSOD on occasion. He is also so devoted to his promise to protect the Earth and its inhabitants that he will become insane and probably suicidal if he is unable to do so for long. Being cut off from Earth is going to weigh heavily on him and he will literally never stop trying to get home. ''Power Limitations:'' I'm going to say that, for sanity's sake, he's not going to be able to achieve sun-level temperatures while inside Sacrosanct. This is to keep him from accidentally melting and exploding the entire station. I'm willing to tone down some of his other abilities if the mods suggest it. Character Relationships '''Skyfire: Jade: AM: TARDIS: Emile: Kimiko: Shaun: Vriska: Samus: Ladon: Free Space See Also Internal and external links of interest. Examples include your character's house page, events they partook in, important canonmates, outside resources for more details on your character, and so on.